Opinion
USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- Each year I try to provide some guidance to NRA members wondering how to best utilize their votes in the election of members of the NRA Board of Directors. Usually, this entails calling for “bullet voting” for one or two good candidates in a sea of establishment “yes-people.” But this year is a bit different. Many of the problems that I’ve been reporting on and warning about for years, came to a head over the past year, proving that I was justified in my concerns, and demonstrating the serious dangers of having an overabundance of “yes-people” on the Board.
Thanks to a number of resignations from the Board over the past year, this year’s ballot involves 31 seats, rather than the 25 that are normally up for election. The Board is comprised of 75 3-year seats and one 1-year seat, for a total of 76, with 1/3 of the 3-year seats up for election by mail-in ballot each year, and the 76th seat elected by the members at the Annual Meeting.
The vast majority of the people listed on your ballot are current members of the Board running for reelection. That means that they are people who have either participated in, turned a blind eye toward, or been too distracted to notice the chicanery that’s been going on.
Of the “new” people on the ballot, only one is a true newcomer who wasn’t picked by the establishment to run. That is Frank Tait of Pennsylvania.
Frank who leaped into the spotlight at the Members’ Meeting in Indianapolis last year when he introduced a resolution calling for an accounting of the accusations of malfeasance and cronyism at members expense and called for a vote of “No Confidence” in Wayne LaPierre and members of the Executive, Audit, and Finance committees. The resolution was shut down in a parliamentary boondoggle, but Tait went on to launch a successful petition campaign to get his name on this year’s ballot.
Tait has since said some things that cause me some consternation, but I am standing by the endorsement I gave him during his petition drive.
The only other candidate to have been nominated by petition only is former Director John Cushman, who has served on the Board off and on for more than 20 years. I’m not sure what Cushman said or did to get himself rejected by the Nominating Committee after his long, loyal service, but I consider him to have been part of the problem, not part of the solution, so I am not endorsing him.
Of the other candidates nominated by the Nominating Committee, I see most of them as rubber-stamp candidates nominated to support LaPierre. One exception is Phillip Journey of Kansas. I’ve known Phil for many years and always found him to be a man of integrity and intellect, and I will be giving him a vote this year. I also like and respect Niger Innis of Nevada, with the hope that he will prove to be something of the man his father was. The final person I’m supporting in this category is James Wallace of Massachusetts. I worry that he might be too much of an insider, but I deeply respect the work he has done with the Gun Owners’ Action League deep behind enemy lines.
Along with the long-time Directors who I see as culpable in the NRA corruption, there are also several who are relatively new to the Board, having been elected in just the past couple of years. I’m giving several of them the benefit of the doubt and offering them my vote. This includes Anthony Colandro (Anthony is Endorsed by Ammoland News) of New Jersey, Mark Vaughn of Oklahoma, Mark Robinson of North Carolina, Robert Mansell of Arizona, Kevin Hogan of Illinois, and Paul Babaz of Georgia.
While there are a few Directors who have quietly expressed support for reform within the Association, “quietly” is the operative word, and I can’t in good conscience offer them my support.
There are also some candidates on the ballot who have been very active in defending LaPierre and helping to shut down dissent on the Board, with First Vice President Charles Cotton being one of their leaders.
NRA members can send a loud message to the Board and the powers that be, by rejecting Mr. Cotton’s bid for reelection, along with the bids of past presidents, Ron Schmeitz and Alan Cors. (Read Do NOT Vote for.)
The NRA is in deep trouble. I honestly expect indictments and financial sanctions to be coming down very soon from investigations being conducted by the New York and DC attorneys general and other agencies. All of these troubles tie directly back to Wayne LaPierre and the NRA Directors who allowed him to abuse his power so egregiously. If the Association can be saved, it’s going to require Directors willing to make hard decisions and stand firmly on principles. This ballot doesn’t offer a lot of hope for that, but we must do what we can with what we’ve got.
Candidates I Support:
- Frank Tait of Pennsylvania
- Phillip Journey of Kansas
- Niger Innis of Nevada
- James Wallace of Massachusetts
- Anthony Colandro of New Jersey
- Mark Vaughn of Oklahoma
- Mark Robinson of North Carolina
- Robert Mansell of Arizona
- Kevin Hogan of Illinois
- Paul Babaz of Georgia
Candidates I Oppose:
- Charles Cotton of Texas
- Ron Schmeitz of New Mexico
- Alan Cors of Virginia
In other NRA News, New York State Files Charges Against NRA related to Insurance Violations:
The New York Department of Financial Services has filed a Statement of Charges against the NRA for “defined violations of insurance law,” and set a hearing date of April 6, 2020, just 10 days before the NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits.
Note that this Statement of Charges only deals with insurance matters, not all of the other issues that have been being raised about the organization.
I expect that this is only the first of several legal challenges that will be brought over the next several months.
I’ll have more about this soon. In the meantime, you can read the Statement of Charges here.
New State’s Statement of Charges Against NRA February 2020
About Jeff Knox:
Jeff Knox is a second-generation political activist and director of The Firearms Coalition. His father Neal Knox led many of the early gun rights battles for your right to keep and bear arms. Read Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War.
The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition has offices in Buckeye, Arizona and Manassas, VA. Visit: www.FirearmsCoalition.
One potential new person for their board? Tells me nothing will ever change at the NRA and the status quo with bury the NRA.
Read more: https://www.ammoland.com/2020/02/has-one-employee-made-the-nra-irrelevant/#ixzz6DGuZ3mbi Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Follow us: @Ammoland on Twitter | Ammoland on Facebook The NRA has become irrelevant and infective. Bloomberg and its organizations have pumped millions to support antigun agendas all across the country. The NRA has invested pennies but continue to collect membership and call for more donations. While Wayne LaPierre is busy spending his $2 million a year salary and hiring loyal cronies for $800K each (there were 6-8 of them), the democrat party is using Bloomberg’s dollars to buy power, and repaying him with bizarre and ineffectual gun control laws. These laws… Read more »
Wayne & his beltway vampire pals collaborate with Bloomberg. e.g. Before Mini Mike came out of the RINO closet, ex-NRA-director & “Libertarian” Islamophile Grover al Nor’Qu’ist had long worked with Mike to elect “cheap labor” pro-amnesty RINOs. Norquisling openly endorsed gun grabbers while he was on the NRA board & arranged for ILA to help Mike defeat conservative Chris McDaniel in Mississippi & reelect corrupt RINO Thad Cochran. Cochroach won by a hair thanks to NRA. LaPierre, Alan Gottlieb & Jeff Knox all worked to save Norquist from recall by NRA members, and worked to reelect him.
I’m a life NRA member and proud to be one! Is my association in trouble? Yes! Are there problems? Absolutely!! Can this be fixed? If we all work together for it then yes it can. By we I mean the regular members, not the BoD! The NRA is ours not theirs! We need to take it back! Thank you Jeff Knox for your leadership and insight! As always your recommendations are welcomed by me and I’m sure other NRA members as well.
Let the NRA die the death it so deserves. As always, something new will rise from the ashes: something better.
It has to burn down! Its beyond repair!
Is it me or have the ny tards don corlecoumo and lucretia the ag backed off from trashing the nra?
Perhaps they fear what would rise from the ashes. And i thought knox was to be trusted?
I guess not
Even if they grift your money?
@Russn8r
Yes, even then. Those who chose to stay with the NRA when they know what is going on are responsible for their own choice.
However, when NRA stooges attack us for choosing to find other 2A groups to support based on our concerns, that is when they need smacked.
I see, you think NRA grift bad, other grift good. Nice try.
Grift is grift, NRA or SAF. LaPierre and his Vampire pals grift Billions. Gottlube grifts millions, abused his NRA-Mini-Me empire’s resources to keep NRA members from recalling his LOLibertarian pal Grover al Nor’Qu’ist. And abuses donor money for payola to have hard core gun writers fired & tedious collaborator Dave Workman hired instead. But you’re ok with that.
@Russn8r — OK, so you got a beef with SAF, that’s your position & you’re entitled to it. So support GOA or FPC or whatever. Everyone can find a 2A group to support. But if someone supports a group that actively betrays 2A like the NRA or NAGR, well they’ll have to own it. Otherwise they’re a first class HYPOCRITE and other gun activists will call them out on that hypocrisy based on the FACTS.
Everyone needs to remember, facts don’t care about your feelings.
@wjd Flatt “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”~ John Adams Poor Russn8r, so quick to denounce someone for drawing a line between infringing others rights to make their own choices that he doesn’t know I’m not a member of the SAF. I went with the GOA, and yes I also understand the GOA did the write up on Alan Gottlieb back in March of 1999. Maybe if he paid attention and listened a little more, he wouldn’t have run… Read more »
https://waronguns.blogspot.com/2020/02/take-your-pick.html
“Why not mention Rob Pincus backing Virginia Democrat Jorge Amselle who helped turn the state blue?”
Really? Way to go “single-issue” geniuses! Including Jeff Knox.
I’m re-posting my post on “Save The Second” Pincus picks here, since most of it applies. Jeff Knox promotes a “single-issue” strategy that subverts NRA’s charter. His Firearms Coalition defended Grover Norquist from recall and tried to keep him on the board of directors. Norquist is a corrupt mass-immigration, pro-amnesty, Bloomberg-collaborating, LOLibertarian Islamophile. So I don’t trust Jeff’s recommendations. ================ “LaPierre Bad” does not equal “Pincus Good”. 1. Save The Second pushes a lame, weak Rodney King line: “Infighting bad”. If infighting is bad, what’s the point of STS? STS is so mealy-mouthed it refuses to “endorse or rebuke candidates”… Read more »
Correction: …”while vampires pocket $1 BILLION every 2-3 years.”